10 Nick Hedifeld

Last year Heidfeld surprised many by leading his team mate Robert Kubica home home more often than not. But over the winter the banning of traction control and associated loss of engine braking, plus the transition from the F1.07 to F1.08, all seems to have played into Kubica?óÔé¼Ôäós hands.

Heidfeld has mainly struggled with getting his tyres up to temperature on qualifying runs. After taking time at a test to address this he believes he has now conquered the problem, and his Q2 time at Silverstone within hundredths of Kubica supports his claim, but the damage to his season has already been done.

Most disappointing driver so far this year. He is in his eighth year in F1, I think he may be a steady Eddie – in F1 for ages with little big success. Sad about this though because he seems like a cool guy and he blew everyone away in F3000.

9 Sebastian Vettel

Vettel struggled to get to the end of races in the first part of the season, but that was largely down to problems not of his own making.

But he has flourished since the STR3 arrived and took it to fifth on its first appearance in Monaco, from 19th in the grid. Vettel clearly revelled in the wet conditions and it was a pit not to see what he might hae achieved from eighth on the grid in the rain at Silverstone before David Coulthard took him out. Vettel is likely to take Coulthard’s place at Red Bull next year.

8 Mark Webber

At last Webber has a car that is both quick and consistent. And he is making excellent use of it, finishing in the points with greater regularity than at any other time in his career to date.

He is one of the best qualifiers in Formula 1 ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ as his fine second place on the grid last weekend showed. His disastrous performance on the Sunday has been the only blip in his otherwise very solid form.

Webber has really impressed me this season. Having the same amount of points as Kovalinen show how good a season he is having. 4th was on the cards at Canada if Red Bull had moved him to a one-stopper. Madness there.

7 Jarno Trulli

Suddenly Toyota is fourth in the constructors?óÔé¼Ôäó championship. How did that happen? Most of it is down to Trulli, who has regularly beaten his junior team mate into the top ten.

He even seems to have consigned the ?óÔé¼?£Trulli train?óÔé¼Ôäó to history ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ after qualifying fourth at Magny-Cours he raced to the podium against the expectations of many. I?óÔé¼Ôäóm going to have to stop making jokes about it in the Live Blog.

6 Heikki Kovalainen

Nine races in and Heikki Kovalainen?óÔé¼Ôäós McLaren career has yielded a single podium. But he has been plagued by misfortune in a way his illustrious team mate has not: an ill-timed safety car appearance at Melbourne, electrical failure on the grid at Monaco, and of course that disastrous wheel failure at Barcelona.

He has shown enough pace to worry Lewis Hamilton on occasions ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ out-qualifying him with more fuel on board at Istanbul for example. There have been fewer mistakes from Kovalainen too although he just couldn?óÔé¼Ôäót live with his team mate?óÔé¼Ôäós speed in the wet at Silverstone.

5 Fernando Alonso

He may be back at Renault but, as last year, there are some tensions between driver team, albeit far less destructive ones. Alonso seems to be preoccupied with getting the best results at individual races rather than consistently gathering points in the lower half of the top eight. He is a twice champion after all. But a more conservative approach might have him and Renault higher in their respective championships.

The gambles haven?óÔé¼Ôäót always worked and have brought him into conflict with the team. He criticised the strategy used at Montreal and repeatedly asked for extreme wet weather tyres at Monaco before the car got away from him while he was on full wets. Spinning on the formation lap at his home race was another lowlight. But the season opener at Melbourne showed Alonso in his best light ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ combative and opportunistic, stealing a fourth place that shouldn?óÔé¼Ôäót have been there by piling pressure on Kovalainen.

4 Felipe Massa

Massa has had a down-up-down kind of season. His first two races were terrible, all the fears about him struggling to cope with a traction control-free F1 car apparently realised. He binned his F2008 at the first corner at Melbourne, and threw away second place at Sepang with a spin.

After that it was if some clicked and suddenly Massa could win as he pleased. Was this just because of tracks like Istanbul and Bahrain where he seems to shine? The jury?óÔé¼Ôäós still out on that one. Confusing the situation further, after a composed drive to third at a wet Monaco he looked all sea in the rain at Silverstone and finished a disastrous 13th after five spins. Nonetheless, he is still a joint leader of the championship.

40 comments on 2008 half-term driver rankings part 2

Tied with Hamilton and Massa but everyone expected him to run away with the WDC this year. No more new tires, no more new team and no more car that wasn’t made for him. Getting beaten by unrated Massa in both races and qualifying.

1) Kubica (2007 ranking ?)

Apart from the spin in Silverstone, hasn’t put a foot wrong. Lets see how he copes with a resurging Heidfeld who seems to be a better racer. I have yet to see Kubica overtake a car on merit like Heidfeld or defend his position either. The season is not over yet.

Alonso remains the best driver on the grid, by a hair over Kimi. Kimi is overall the fastest, but if you factor in qualities like fighting spirit, consistency, error-free driving, influence within the team and car/race management, then Alonso is tops.

Lewis is very good, perhaps the best on a wet track, but not yet in the class of Alonso & Kimi.

Massa is simply a good driver. Nothing more, nothing less.

Kubica is very, very good. After these four, there is a significant drop-off to the rest of them.

I think this is not really a ranking of who is the best driver, but a ranking of how they have fared in this season so far. Here I would put it like this:

3. Hamilton
2. Kimi
1. Kubica

I don’t think Lewis deserves to be 3. alone, I would rate him, Massa and Alonso as joint 3..
Kimi just made a few mistakes and seemed to be a little bit switched off in some races which he turned around in the last two but was hit with misfortune and wrong tactics. Kubica has done very well this season, the spin in Silverstone was a little harder than what Lewis and Kimi did in their “moments”, but still it could’ve happened to anyone. He will rue the lost points though…

Kimi would be first if it wasn’t for his apparent lapse in concentration at the beinging of the season.

His last 3 races have really shown he’s still at the top, only to be handicapped by something or another, whether that be a pit lane “incident”, a damaged exhaust or a bad tyre choice.

Heâ€™s 6 consecutive fastest laps show he has more than enough pace to win. He just needs to have a little less bad luck. Something that has come in buckets this season.

Lewis, with his hot headed arrogance really shows that he still needs to mature, both in and out of the car. When the pressure has been on he looks to have struggled, making uncharacteristic (of his career up until the last few races of 2007) mistakes.

Whilst his brilliance in the wet and his clear desire to win, show at most races, so does his immaturity, both in F1, and life.

Lastly, Kubica, the nearly man up until Montreal this year, has shown amazing consistency, and I think anyone can forgive his mistake in Silverstone. Whilst never really a real title contender, heâ€™s a decent outsider, and perhaps even worth a trip to the bookies, for a small flutterâ€¦

@F1Fan: How can you commend Alonso for his error free driving when he has thrown points away by crashing out a couple of times this year? How can Kimi be the fastest when Massa has beaten him convincingly often this season? For pure pace I would go with Hamilton and Alonso. The myth of Kimi’s superior pace was created by the extraordinarily fast but unreliable 2005 McLaren.

@Internet: I disagree with you regarding Raikkonen’s pace. It is a far cry from a myth as this year alone Raikkonen has consistently churned out fastest laps. While I concede that Massa has so far out-qualified him this season, there is no doubt as far as race-pace is concerned that Kimi is one of the best in the field. If not the best…

Back to the topic. I agree with Kester and Michael K, my pick would be

Kubica is only top driver who is driving “not winning car” and he is still doing great job. Would love see him in ferrari. OH BOY.

Kimi alsways been same. He needs fight and then he wakes up. He is better than Massa in race but not in qualifying. And points give from race right.

Hamilton is fast and good but he still a little bit pressure weak He even have said that he was think quitting his career if he would not win Silverston. Hamilton do not know yet how drive in midfield, he do not know how to drive bad car either.

UGH i have sopken lol.

pst. would be lovely to see 4 top cars start in same start line in race like they did loooong time ago. Would be fun lol.

@Internet: Fastest laps are a useful (but certainly not definitive) guide to ascertain how much a driver can get out of their car. Naturally as far as a race is concerned: 10 points and no fastest lap is better than fastest lap and no points. But we were talking about pace alone. In a race there are many extenuating circumstances that can prevent a driver from bringing home the points that do not directly correlate to the true race-pace that the driver has during said race. Or over an entire season for that matter..

I agreed with you about Fernando. It seems that he is pushing very hard individually because is very worried about his public status of NÂº 1 (again as last year? I think we must stop to feed this another hype, guys).

But looking back to his two championships, Fernando were in most of time conservative in his decisions on track and when took risks the results wasnÂ´t always productive (China 2006!). So it isnÂ´t a new issueâ€¦

Because of that he is very erratic this year:

1) the crashes in Monaco;
2) the spun in Canada
3) and Ted Kravitz has suggested that Alonso has made a new strategic mistake in Britain GP deciding to keep the used tyres in his first pit stop.

If he gambles in cards as he gambles in races it makes me wonder the amount of money his buddies (Webber and Kubitza) has been taking from him behind the paddock in Saturday nights before the race.

Because of that I wouldnÂ´t put Jarno behind Fernando and Heikky. The guy has some consistency and has a podium in his pocket that Fernando hasnÂ´t. No complains about the team, no unforced errors and his team mate are far away of Nelson in terms of performance!

Kimi has actually outqualified Massa the last 3 races, and was trouncing Massa in France before the exhaust problem. Also, in sepang Kimi did a great job to get ahead after the 1st pit and then build a lead.

Kubica has been very good in the least good car of the three but Hamilton’s mistake has increased his points tally over and above what he ‘deserved’ through driving alone. If you take that out of the equation has he really done better than the other two?

Hamilton can’t be higher than third for obvious reasons, and yet it feels to me as though he has had the better of Kimi and Kubica despite this.

Kimi was unlucky to be taken out by Hamilton. The Monaco mistake was nothing and easily forgivable, but even without that I don’t get the feeling that he is champion of the first half.

I agree that they are the top three, but I would put them all joint third. I would like to put Hamilton top, but I just don’t feel I can.

I pretty much agree with the rankings so far. I’m tempted to want to see Massa a bit lower, especially after Silverstone, but I suppose he does deserve that spot looking at those below him.

For the final three I would have to go Kubica at three, Raikkonnen and Hamilton top. Controversial I know but none of them have been entirely without fault this season. Kubica just is not quite top draw yet but clearly has the potential. Kimi has driven some great races but also had some terrible errors. The same can be said for Lewis but his Monaco and Silverstone wins push him into the lead for me.